As excited as I am with my revisions, I really feel like I've just been plodding along. I finished Nano and even though I had the words to win, I didn't really feel like a winner. Nothing like last year when I finished Songbird. So when I started tackling the revisions to Raven's Mark (Evolution of Janie) I was already in a funk.
So far, I've managed to get to chapter 4 with revisions and I already know I have another round to do, because the feedback I've had from my reviewers on the first three have pointed out things I knew and was dreading. Restructing parts of the first chapter, to establish setting sooner., working on sentence structure to build sentence fluency and decrease the choppy phrasing, which although commonly found in YA is not how I want my work to read. The part that's really killing me though is reducing all of my repetitive words, and ideas.
My first major revision of Raven's Mark was drastic, I pretty much massacred the thing and it came out three hundred percent better. The round I want to know that at the end I've got it solid. That it really will be ready to send to agents. I still have my hopes for the two agents with my original partials, but at this stage I'm moving on. I refuse to just put this piece on the shelf. I will get this story in shape. Even if it takes me forever to do!
On my iPod:
"Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars
Everyone has a different approach to their art or craft. Frank Sinatra would walk in to the studio and record a song in one take - he refused to do it again. Pink Floyd are perfectionists and probably take months and dozens of takes to record one track. Keep at it!! :-)
ReplyDeleteGood for you! Just take lots of breaks when you start hitting that "this is crap" phase. ;-) [Okay, at least I get stuck there.]
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